'The fray of not caring,' 'She spruced up the bouquet,' and 'The 5 was much easier to write'
The fray of not caring
Splays into routine shrugs
Of a black sweater
With no wrinkles
Beaded so small you see dots
Aging as if swollen then
Retreating into
The double negatives
Of all those
Cocooned Q-Tips
She spruced up the bouquet
without caring
for the roots that used to live
in earth and touch
the repetition
of a t with straight lines
The 5 was much easier to write
The ampersand, less so
With nothing to wave your hand over
As if virtual nature quite interior
Overlaps
With how we see and feel
And have the fabric
Of orgasms
In pinpricks
Stacey Allam is 56 years old and has been married for 27 years. She has two children, 25 and 23 respectively. She's originally from Rego Park, Queens, New York, but has resided in Brooklyn for 28 years. She has been writing poetry most of her life.
Sheila E. Murphy is the recipient of the Gertrude Stein Award for her book Letters to Unfinished J. (Green Integer Press, 2003). Her most recent book is Golden Milk (Luna Bisonte Prods, 2020). Reporting Live from You Know Where won the Hay(na)Ku Poetry Book Prize Competition (Meritage Press (U.S.A.) and xPress(ed) (Finland), 2018). Also in 2018, Broken Sleep Books brought out the book As If To Tempt the Diatonic Marvel from the Ivory. The chapbook Separation Theory (Writers Forum, 2004) was just reprinted (Trainwreck Press, 2022).
